Doujin Reprints?

I'd agree with a lot of this if we were speaking about only the doujin in the Japanese market but we are also speaking about the western market here. I think it is comparing apples to oranges when we lump Japanese doujins in with English translated ones because they are made for two different markets under different circumstances. In Japan, the doujinshi culture is pretty heavily established and known among fans for many decades now. In the west, it is still very much in its infancy. English print doujinshi are a pretty new thing and English publishers are only just testing the waters so far with how much demand is out there and how best to market and sell to western fans. Bear in mind, too, an English publisher's goal is primarily to make profit and spread the work to a new market the artist can't easily reach. Unlike in Japan where it is typically the artist directly selling to fans. Limiting things to an exclusive club outside Japan kind of defeats the purpose of the English publisher even getting involved in the first place, as the die hard western Japanese doujin collectors may as well just buy the Japanese Comiket copy for "rarity" reasons instead. Another big part of it being released in the west is making it more easily accessible to English speaking audiences and anything that hinders its distribution would work counter to that goal.

Additionally, Japanese fans know exactly where to get the doujins they are interested in and when, and can thus easily plan to make Comiket or send someone in their stead. There is a clear time and place known and an established culture surrounding it. Outside Japan, there does not exist a similar culture or known place of sale. Western fans exist all over the world and most don't have the luxury to easily attend specific cons for this stuff, let alone the knowledge of when and where sales will even happen half the time. There is no set comic market venue or date for this stuff in English. I personally want to see the market in the west for doujins grow, and making English translated doujins a super exclusive endeavor is not the way to go about growing things. I can understand doing con specific stuff but think it should be more along the lines of meeting the artist in person and getting an autograph, a photo, and/or some other extra limited goodies besides the English translated doujin itself. The added collector value should be in limited extra goods or services surrounding the English doujin or a limited special printing with fancy packaging, while the same high quality standard doujin copies should be sold online for those unable to attend a con in person. I don't think it is a good idea to make having a print copy in English, in and of it self, a very limited thing. That does not help grow the market and limits lots of potential sales, as demand is probably a lot higher than a con exclusive print run. Again, English publishers are not the artist but rather facilitate sales to an audience the artist can't reach. Anything that impedes reaching people with print copies I feel would only hurt their goals.

In regards to the original Japanese doujins being offered for sale on FAKKU or similar, I agree it would be a bit silly to do a specific reprint of past doujins just for sale overseas, even if just for the reason it is not in the native language of most buyers and is essentially a reproduction of the limited product offered at Comiket. People can import those easy enough from Japan via third party sources as is if interested. That said, I'm also very grateful Shikimaya offered physical copies of the Japanese Oni doujins thus far on FAKKU, since it made things easier to get and also offered us that bonus of the signature. If Shikimaya, FAKKU, or others do a similar sale of a Japanese doujin like that in the future, the only thing I'd change is to have some more signed and unsigned copies available for sale than happened with the Oni sales. So, maybe 50 signed copies of a title and 200 copies total or so would be good in my view. Also, advertising it at least a week in advance on FAKKU and social media would be very helpful. Bringing the artist over for a signing and meet and greet at a big con would also be nice, if possible. If that happened, I'd still want some signed and unsigned copies set aside for sale online for those unable to attend the con for whatever reason, and I always want an English print copy when there's enough demand for one.

I think offering signed copies or copies with very limited extras of some kind is how you give collectors what they want. Alongside those, a standard edition print copy is how you give the rest of the market who wants to read doujins in English physically what they want. Any standard edition English doujin should still have high quality paper and meet the same Japanese doujin standards, though, and not be printed on the cheap on something like newsprint stock. I would not pay for that in print. Ultimately, having limited editions and standard editions is a win-win scenario to both collector and casual fan alike, since both get a physical copy to enjoy but the collector's version is worth more because of its limited nature relative to the standard edition. Some of us prefer having physical to read over digital, so I think having a print copy goes beyond just collectability for some. Having only very small print runs, making a standard edition print in essence a limited edition due to scarcity alone, when there exists a good demand higher than that will alienate many who just want a physical copy and want to see legal doujins thrive here in the west. Not everyone likes "the hunt" and "thrill" from seeking out limited stuff, so having multiple options for print would be a wise compromise. You brought up a 1st edition for Moby Dick, but imagine if that was the only print edition. The reality is there exists both those very limited ones worth a lot while also dirt cheap copies printed today for regular reading. No collector is losing value to those other editions nor the thrill of the hunt from landing a big catch when they score a limited copy worth more than other copies. In the end, the English publishers have to dream big and make physical happen where possible, otherwise it will surely continue to only be something for a very small, exclusive group.

I get what your saying for the english port front, but it just the thing... those doujinshis was con exclusive. Now if say jacob or shikimaya print a non event specific doujin port... that a different animal. If jacob prints let's say... 'Rem to Naisho na Koto Shimasen ka?' and only offered it in the store then that fine if he runs off a 100 or so then if demands comes for a small run to fill a need then a 2nd edition is fine. But over saturation isn't a good thing either. It was lucky enough we had some saitom left. Jacob did print a few more xxx mix just because he could, but i think he printed less of them then with the saitom box one or Bosshi himself said he was ok with a second small run. Problem im getting at is the printing of a limited edition item then print more. It defeats the idea of exclusives things. It actually devalues them.

Doujin quality is actual better than it use to. A lot was photocopy quality on whatever paper was cheapest with paper covers that maybe if you are lucky was laminated. Half drawn and printed at the 7-11. It's because it gotten cheaper that doujinshi is better made and printed. If an English porter wants to make a LE and a SE print run then so be it. Im not the money man. It's the fact of the collectiblity im in to. The way the tankobons are sold and offer in the convention are different. It's just saitom box and xxx mix aren't the same thing. They made them for that one con because they was there. That what im saying. You can't really say well we made 500 copies for anime expo, but we also will print more for the store later. It would be the same as was a circle in japan saying we have 1000 at the comiket 92, but later we will print more for melonbook and mandarake.

Moby dick was a bad analogy on my part. I should of say them reprinting it as a 1st edition vs the 2nd edition.

I agree XXX Mix is a bit different in terms of how it was initially sold and marketed. If Jacob were to print any more of that title, he should probably clearly make it a 2nd edition exclusive to the store, with a different cover indicating such. That way he could still offer a less limited "store version" while keeping the "con version" exclusive and retain its value.

For instance, though Vanilla Essence has a KS exclusive LE, it also has a SE sold in the Project-H store and elsewhere. The LE is still KS exclusive and retains its value, but there is an SE to meet any further demand for those who missed out on the LE but still want it in print in high quality.

If XXX Mix never gets printed again, while I will be disappointed I won't be able to get it in print in some capacity, I will still understand. What I hope for most is that going forward, the standard edition print copy won't be the limited edition due to scarcity. I'd much rather more people got copies and any limited nature came from some other collectible aspect than it just being a physical copy alone.

I also always want a store version, even if it has a different cover or something, or excess copies set aside for the store ahead of time when they plan to do similar sales at cons, since not everyone can attend in person or have someone there to get them a copy. As much as I find digital convenient and nice to have as a bonus, I much prefer to tangibly have a copy of something in hand, and artificial scarcity is my enemy in that regard.



I don't disagree here. The way these were marketed initially were as con exclusives it seems. That said, there is clearly still a good deal of demand for both in print. As a compromise, Jacob could consider 2nd Editions for sale in the store, and as long as they are indicated as such, the 1st Editions would still remain special and exclusive as a collectible. The collector could still say "I have the con exclusive version" and market it for resale as such if so inclined.

I feel like there would be alot more possibilities for loli content if we got more doujins, though as stated above doujins aren't a good business decision, and sounds like licensing nightmares

Love Selection is awesome, it should always be in print!

When I created the survey, I hadn't even considered the collectable aspect. I basically just like to physically own a book. The rarity isn't a thing for me, but I appreciate that for others it can be a factor.

For my part, a "reprint" in my mind is the content of the original, not a duplication. Your point of reprinting a 1st edition Moby Dick is illuminating (for my understanding).

I rarely see much difference between editions, even Cute Devil Girlfriend only has a small disclaimer about it being 2nd Ed. As long as the content is the same, I am indifferent to if it is a first edition or limited edition.

So, if Jacob did a reprint of Saitom, but made it clear that this wasn't the original edition or did a new cover or something to show it is a 2nd ed. (or even call it a Mass Market Edition) I would still totally buy it :) Would that work for you?

This is where I see it getting trickier. Only in Regards to the Saitom Box, and Bosshi's XXX Mix.

cause if they re-release it with a new cover, it then becomes a variant cover, and then that becomes another issue.

Normally the Limited Edition Copies would have the standard cover and then have the variant cover as either a dust jacket, or the variant cover would be the actual cover, and the first page would be the standard edition cover.

Now that may work in FAKKU's favor cause I can easily see several people who already bought the first edition Saitom Box, re-purchasing it just because of a variant Box Cover.

However the alternate cover may be better suited to future releases. Just my opinion.

Excellent points! I feel like I am learning alot with this thread.

Why stop there? Set a new standard by printing everything as an oversized hardcover edition!

I never imagined as a child "when I grow older, one of my most rare items will be a book of drawn pornography." Funny how life unfolds.

Right? It will be the one item my children will fight over after I die...

It's artisanal!

I love imaging a future where children are bludgeoning each other for anime tiddies.

I think one of my books are or was going for 1099$ on amazon.

Give us a name!



That's the future we all wanna live in!

Velvet kiss 4

Plower play newsprint.

Witchcraft and this is the cheap one

Boing boing

How good am i

Ebay is actually cheaper most of the time. All of those i bought for 20 a piece and velvet kiss for 35$ complete set. Then again we had this.

At least the 17 fakku book set was only 120$ and the other was 240.

I'd say a good way to do a print run of doijins would be a made-to-order batch.

For example, let's say they decide to print physical English versons of Oni. For a limited time, let's say 3 weeks, people can preorder it and then they will print just those ones and send them out. If it works well that way it could make it easier to print. Doujins that aren't as popular don't sit around collecting dust, and it's money they don't loose from said dust coveted doujins.

Also they could include a "limited number required" thing. Like, if they have to ay minimum print of 25 copies to be able to have a physical release and they miss that 25 mark; the people who ordered it won't get charged or get a refund. It may pissed a few people off that way, but I somehow doubt that if the requirement is a low number that it wouldn't get hit within whatever time frame they choose. Unless it's a time frame of only a day, then maybe it'd be harder to hit. Of course the time frame thing could be longer or extended to allow a few more people to be able to order and make said goals.

You my friend, have some excellent taste. I feel like I should get some fapping gloves to preserve my library now.

I always thought it was a shame Domin8 wasn't available anymore. If I lost that one, I would weep. Seems like ErosComix is returning a 404 now. I wonder if that makes all the old Inu "Strange Kind of Woman" valuable too.

Vol 1 and 2 of strange kind of woman is going for 38 a piece on the ebay and domi-8 me is 15.